Pros:

Cons:

If war is hell, then fifty years of war is a whole lotta hell. That's the premise of Dreamcatcher's Iron Storm -- that World War I never ended, and fifty years later one side is on the verge of researching nukes -- and it's a promising one. As we saw in Crimson Skies, this sort of revisionist history offers a unique chance to blend familiarity and fantasy. At times, Iron Storm lives up to this promise. But most of the time, it's a sub-par and disappointing first-person shooter.

Set in an alternate 1960's, the opening levels are an obvious attempt at a Half-Life-styled introduction. You run around trenches, people talk to you, and you eventually figure out where to report for duty, at which point you try out some weapons and accumulate the goodies you'll need for your first mission. Then Iron Storm veers very briefly into Medal of Honor territory as you join a squad of men trying to get across a battlefield. You clear the way for them and they tag along behind you. So far, so good

At this point, it's possible to ignore some of the game's glaring flaws. The character animation is truly wretched. When you kill someone, he snaps into a rigid stance and jerks upwards like a pogo stick, as if rigor mortis had instantly set in. Character models seem to be brushed with some sort of monochrome varnish, presumably to give them a historical sepia tone effect. Instead, they look like the tan soldiers from one of the Army Men games. You can play Iron Storm from a third-person perspective, but this would mean you're constantly watching that stiff animation. So the solution is to play from the first-person view, ignoring the ugly enemy models and overlooking the bad death animations altogether.

This isn't too hard to do because the terrain and level design graphics aren't bad. Although there's a murky rust-colored wash over most of the game (again, presumably to give it that sepia-toned historical flavor) the graphics engine does a fairly good job of rendering earthen trenches, concrete bunkers, shattered villages, underground labs, and even a fancy train. Early on, there are a few battlefield settings with bombed-out buildings, ruined trees, and helicopters patrolling overhead where Iron Storm really comes together. There are also some nice touches, like the working televisions that you can use to watch newscasts. Then you can switch over to a rudimentary radar display that shows whether any enemies are near. The Radar Channel, if you will.

But the game's flaws get harder and harder to ignore. The AI does a lot of running around hither and thither, which might be mistaken for cleverness if it weren't so random. When the AI is actually shooting at you, it's frustratingly accurate. And, when you're dealing with snipers, the whole thing comes crashing down. Think of the roughest sniper sequences in recent games. Jedi Knight II? Medal of Honor? This is worse.

Iron Storm pins you down with sniper fire early and often, forcing you through aggravating save-and-reload loops. It's one of Iron Storm's favorite tricks: put someone with preternatural aim in a distant window and challenge the player to get the drop on him. Working your way through city streets elicits a real sense of dread, not because this is how a real soldier would feel, but because you know you're going to have to reload the game as soon as some guy in a far-off window kills you before you even see him. You can turn on a bright red targeting reticule that moves over opponents, but the effect is like something out of a light-gun game and it doesn't do you any good unless you're already looking at someone.